Knowing the frequency and cooses of dropouts in the combined events appears relevant and fundamental to better define the necessary abilities for decathletes and heptathletes. The purpose of this study was to determine, from existing databases the frequency of dropouts. This descriptive epidemiological retrospective study included decathlon and heptathlon competition results that were collected and analysed from dato available on the Internet. A total of 160 international combined events competitions that took place from 1991 to 2009 were surveyed. It was found that not completing a decathlon or heptathlon is common: 22% of decathletes did not complete their competitions (11% during first day, 11% during second day) and 13% of heptathletes did not complete their competitions (5% during first day, 8% during second day). The percentage of "no point" marks was important: in pole vault (5.7%), lang jump (2.4%) and 110m hurdles (2.3%) in the decathlon, and long Jump (3.1%) in the heptathlon. Some events are key to the success of the competition, such as technical and explosive events. Further prospective studies are needed to determine the causes of dropouts in combined events.
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